Past Tense Smile

Three years… That is how long Eunice Tsui spent in a coma after the car accident five years ago. Now that she is awake, the perpetrator must settle his debts. She's returning to the country that never gave her a warm home, and this time, she's taking matters into her own hands. She will track down every rat hiding in the sewer and eliminate them herself. No more being pushed around or feeling unwelcome—she's taking control of the situation. However, her well-thought-out revenge compromises when Jullian Lopez keeps appearing before her. What will be his role in the stage she built for the culprits to gather around? EXCERPT: “Mommy, I missed you!” A four-year-old boy rushes to her side and gives her a loud kiss on the cheek. “How’s my baby?” With an unusually delicate smile on her lips, Eunice asked softly. “Mommy, don’t embarrass me!” Eunice raised a brow and chuckled. “And why is that? You will always be my baby. Besides, we’re the only people here. Why would you feel embarrassed if I called you my baby?” Jillian pouted, folding his arms as he looked past his mom and pointed at the man who emerged from her bathroom only wrapped in a bath towel, barely covering anything. “Eunice Tsui! Why does that child look so much like me?” the man inquired. Eunice rolled her eyes and retorted, “Jullian Lopez, stop assuming. We never sleep together!” Astounded, Jillian shifted his gaze from the two adults to the bedroom, which looked like a super hurricane had passed because of how messed up the bed and every corner of the room were.

"Fuck me like you've never fucked any woman , daddy!!I want your cock!“ I moaned throatily, thrashing wildly in ecstasy as Alex fingered my clit right left and center.Slapping my ass cheeks and breasts soundly. "I hope you'll keep saying that ,you slut when I slam my ten inch cock into your hole !" He whispered hoarsely into my cunt and slurped my feminine juices with his devastatingly hot tongue. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A wild night. A stranger’s touch. A signature she can’t remember. When Chiara Hayes wakes up in an unfamiliar penthouse, aching, ringed, and legally bound to Alexander Carrington — the enigmatic billionaire with a scandalous past — she realizes her hangover is the least of her problems. Once accused of two brutal crimes, Alex has rebuilt his empire and his name from ashes. He doesn’t need love. He needs a wife — on paper, at least. One year of marriage, that’s the deal. All Chiara has to do is play along: smile at the cameras, endure his icy family, and help him close the deal of a lifetime. In exchange, he’ll protect her from the mess her life has become. But what begins as a business arrangement turns into something dangerously real. Desire blurs the line between truth and lies, and every kiss pulls her deeper into a web of secrets. When old memories resurface — ones that tie her to the Carrington empire and a tragedy buried for years — Chiara must face a chilling question: Can she trust the man she’s married to… or did she just fall in love with her family’s killer?

In my past life, right before sitting for the college entrance exams, my best friend, Lily Shaw, and I made a pact. We promised that once we got into college, we would study finance and make a fortune. But because my exam went smoothly and I was the first to leave the exam room, I ended up on camera for an interview. Somehow, I blew up overnight. Years later, I became a top celebrity, while Lily was sent to prison for financial fraud. When she got out, I gave her a million dollars to help her get back on her feet. She repaid me by quietly forging lies about me, whipping up a wave of online hate, and doing everything she could to destroy me. I traced the truth and confronted her, but she snapped back at me, "What gives you the right to stare down at me from your lofty throne and throw me scraps, Hannah Linden? I'm prettier than you, and my grades were better than yours. Why did you get the better life?" She laid out a plan to get back at me. She knocked me out and slashed my face. She also gouged out my eyes and cut out my tongue before stuffing me into a freezer, leaving me there to freeze to death. When I open my eyes again, I find myself reborn in my senior-year classroom. There's just over a month left for the college entrance exams. I look at Lily, who sits to my left and whispers to me. I smile at her, my eyes glinting with ice and venom.

I, alpha Connor Tomson, reject you, Elara Silvius, as -," he stops, and a wicked smile forms on his full lips, " I won't reject you. You'll carry around the bond and get to suffer with it. It is payback for what your family did to mine," He sneers, staring at me with a penetrating gaze. Am I imagining this? What is happening right now? I can't speak. I'm too shocked. The room is spinning, and my heart is pounding against my chest. ... Alpha Connor has one thing he wants more than anything. To make the family responsible for his sister's death pay. He plans to kidnap and torture their beloved daughter, Elara, and it seems luck is on his side when he finds out she's his mate. Elara is beautiful and strong but the strenuous treachery from her mate crippled her heart. Alpha Connor slept with another woman to cause her pain. Gathering her strength, she decides to run from his pack. However, she did not expect to meet Zuriel, a man who made her heart beat faster and faster since she was a child. Zuriel's heart is cold and isolated from the world. He is dangerous, broken, and the only one of his kind. He meets Elara when he is about to plummet fully into darkness. No one has ever challenged him but her. Elara is rebellious and tests his patience, but he opens up to her. However, everything gets complicated when Elara's mate appears in her life, and Zuriel's dark, concealed past catches up to him. Follow my instagram- authorsunshine97

"S-stay away from me." She stammered while moving her steps backward just to hit the edge of the table. "Why would I do that?" He placed his hands on her either side surrounding her in his woody scent. She couldn't help but took a deep breath. "It's my p-personal space." She turned her face towards the bookshelf beside the table as he leaned his face closer. "Hmm..." He hummed as her whole body shuddered when he started tracing her jugular vein with his nose. Her mouth was dry as the aura of his scent was gone and fear conquered her body. "You are my personal thing too." He groaned jerking her towards him by her waist. "L-lea..." Her lips couldn't form the words as he captured her soft lips in a swift. ←→ Ara Smith, daughter of a priest, drowned in innocence. She is a 19 years old girl with a cheeky smile but she didn't get the chance to smile much after her father's death. ‹› Gareth Blade, a 31 years old mafia billionaire is another name for a nightmare. No one dares to match his stoned gaze that reflects his stoned heart. He can own the things that ever attracts his eyes but this time his eyes didn't fall on something but someone.

“She tried to escape. I think she wants to go rogue.” The guard said.  Sabrina’s eyes snapped to me. A smirk curled on her lips as she walked forward. “Tried to escape, did we?” she said, her blue eyes slicing into mine. “Leave us.” The guards obeyed. She moved in, gaze sweeping over me. “Whatever made you think your scrawny little body could outrun two strong guards?” “Sabrina, you have to let me go. I don’t want to be your handmaid. Please. Let me go.” I begged.  Sabrina laughed, sharp and cold. “Oh, you’ll serve me whether you like it or not.” She leaned closer. “You won’t just serve me, Elowyn. You’ll mate with the Alpha and carry his child for us.” My breath caught. “What?” Her smile deepened, her voice soft and slow. “I can’t be the one who fulfills the prophecy that Kieran’s Luna will die in childbirth.” She stepped even closer. Her eyes locked on mine. “You will bear his child, Elowyn.” She said it with such certainty that my blood ran cold.  I stared at her, horror rising in my throat. “You want me to die instead of you?” Sabrina said nothing. She didn’t have to. Her smile said everything.

On the day Tristan Spallone, the head of a mafia family, and I mark our fifth wedding anniversary, the manager of the Spallone family vault calls. Something that was stored away for a long time has finally come due, and Tristan is to retrieve it. He's so busy that he barely has a moment to breathe, so I go in his place. What I bring back is an old roll of film. The manager warned me that if it wasn’t developed soon, its age might cause it to be ruined beyond recovery. But when I have them developed, frame after frame is filled with Winnie Leigh, his first love. Her smile looks so sweet in those pictures that they nearly suffocate me. What about me, one may ask? I never once appeared on his albums. The office door slams open. Tristan bursts in, already out of breath. "Anna, is your life really so empty that you have to dig through mine?" I turn toward him, the man who's usually so composed. I neither question him nor break down. Instead, I speak slowly. "We're getting a divorce." Tristan frowns and thrusts the stack of photos into the shredder. He then looks back at me. "They're gone. Do you still want a divorce?" A bitter smile tugs at my lips. "Yes."

I met him in a place no sane woman should ever be in Blackgate Prison. As a prison therapist, I was trained to see danger. Every part of me screamed to stay away, but I couldn’t. He was a legend behind bars, Nikolai Sokolov, ruthless, untouchable, the leader of one of Russia’s most feared Mafia syndicates. Darkness clung to him like a second skin. The dim light carved his face into something sharp and dangerous. He looked at me, cold and unreadable, and held me in place with his gaze. “Who are you?” His voice was rough, heavy with threats and scars I couldn’t see. I forced a smile, trying to keep my voice steady. And yet… a part of me felt at home in this danger, a shadow inside I had never admitted, one that hummed quietly at his presence. It was darkness like his, though he couldn’t know it. “I’m Dr. Korovin. I’m here to evaluate you.” The chains rattled as he shifted, a predator testing the limits of his cage. His lips curved, not into a smile, but into a warning. “My name is Nikolai,” he said slowly, deliberately, heavy with threat. “Remember it, Doctor.” I should have been scared. I should have run. But something inside me stirred, something dark, like him, and I didn’t yet understand it.

Preview. After harsh and violent events that happened in past, I completely lost my faith in relationships: love and friendship both. I spent my last couple of years happily by myself and a very few people I trusted. Most of the people thought I was arrogant and self-centred and i was completely okay with that. But then a realisation hit hard, because of couple of bad people I can't stop trusting everyone. So, for a change i needed a new and fresh kick start. I transferred to another college in last year of my graduation. I loved the feeling of new and raw start. fresh me, fresh people , fresh environment and a lot better vibes. This is where the story starts... I was walking towards my class through the busy corridor just when I saw a him siting on the very first bench of Lr. 19, I saw his fair skin, his jawline, a face with a smile talking to someone on his left. My heart skipped a beat. I was petrified. He turned his face towards me while i was still standing few steps from the door of the class. He smiled. And I realised he was not the one i had a crush on but indeed he looked almost like my crush. After 6 months... The boy i saw is my only true and dearest friend in this college... After about a year, Things change so fast and harshly that you don't even get time to understand the circumstances. The change breaks you.. It hurts but hurt eventually makes you stronger. Read to find out what really happened in the last year of her graduation....

Tate flirts with danger the same way he flirts with men. Recklessly. So when his father’s debts land him in the hands of Enzo Moretti, a cold-blooded mafia boss with a smile as sharp as his threats, Tate should be terrified. Instead, he flirts harder, hiding sharp eyes behind thick glasses like he doesn’t see the monster watching him. But he does. He always did. Enzo is no ordinary criminal. He’s a werewolf with a body built to break, a past soaked in blood, and a temper barely kept in check. Tate is supposed to be collateral—silent, obedient, forgotten. But Tate? He’s loud, shameless, stubborn enough to make Enzo feel. For months, they circle each other—clashing, teasing, burning. Enzo should’ve killed him, but instead, he steals him. Holds him. Breaks him open until their craving for each other twists between punishment and pleasure, until need feels like worship, and pain starts to taste like love. Then, when Tate thinks he’s escaped, when he thinks he’s free—Enzo lets him go. When someone else tries to take what’s already his, Enzo doesn’t hesitate. He drags Tate back, and now the boy wears his name, carries his ring, and sleeps in his bed. Maybe Tate should hate him. But he doesn’t. Because he never wanted gentle. He never wanted safe. He wanted this—blinding, consuming desire. And Enzo? He doesn’t let go. Not when he’s tasted him. Marked him. Owned him. Because monsters like him don’t share. Not even with their own blood.